Hagel warns of big squeeze at Pentagon

Updated 6:40 am, Monday, April 1, 2013

Chuck Hagel reportedly told young enlistees, “You always have a friend in the secretary of defense.”

Chuck Hagel reportedly told young enlistees, “You always have a friend in the secretary of defense.”

Hagel warns of big squeeze at Pentagon

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WASHINGTON — Ending his first month as defense secretary, Chuck Hagel invited six young enlisted personnel for lunch in his private Pentagon office. Without military or civilian aides, Hagel himself took extensive notes as the sergeants and petty officers poured out their concerns about pay, benefits, training and sexual assault — issues that would decide whether they make the military a way of life or just a way station in life.

At the end of the 90-minute session, which was held Thursday, Hagel, a former enlisted soldier who was wounded twice in Vietnam, surprised them with a promise. “Remember, you always have a friend in the secretary of defense,” one of those present quoted him as saying.

Even so, Hagel did not hide the quiet storm that is gathering, one that will test his empathy with the enlisted ranks as he begins to make tough calls over coming weeks about further shrinking the Pentagon after more than a decade of war and free spending.

Even more, as President Barack Obama — who has placed some of the military's long-favored weapons programs in his sights — continues to negotiate with Congress over a spending and revenue deal, Pentagon officials acknowledge they are bracing for a protracted period in which they might have to manage even larger budget reductions than anticipated.

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“There will be changes, some significant changes,” Hagel warned at a news conference last week. “There's no way around it.”

Senior military commanders know the meaning of those words from Hagel: The former soldier might have to fire more soldiers and reduce or reject more weapons programs.

Hagel is expected to begin outlining those changes in a major speech this week that will differ in tone and substance from the dire warnings about budget cuts heard before his arrival. The message is that while the leadership hopes to dampen the impact of across-the-board spending cuts, there is a new Pentagon reality, and everyone must deal with it. Hagel, whose acceptance of the need to shrink the Pentagon is in step with Obama's self-declared strategy to avoid large overseas land wars, will start to outline a rethinking of military policy to fit smaller budgets.

Senior Pentagon officials say Hagel's public air of understatement during his first days in office — which appeared as caution or even uncertainty — can be attributed less to his bumpy road to confirmation than to the time needed to find his stride in a world of complicated issues that have changed even since he left the Senate in 2009.

“I did not know him well before the nomination, and then the things that I had heard about him, well, I was somewhat apprehensive,” said Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “Then I watched as he went through the process. And some of my concerns were even strengthened.”